Our Philosophy

Behind Ron Pollak Training's methods is a philosophy that goes beyond training. For years organisations invested in training without a full understanding of how to obtain a high degree of certainty that training would deliver them the results they were seeking. The philosophy we employ recognises that training is not a panacea. It is a catalyst for change. That philosophy is called Human Performance in Business.

Human Performance in Business

Human Performance in Business is a field of practise that has evolved from research by behavioural and cognitive psychologists, instructional technologists, training designers, organisational developers and human resource specialists.

Human Performance in Business (HPB) takes a holistic approach, where each element can affect the overall outcome. It is concerned with measurable performance. As work has become less labour-oriented and more knowledge-based, providing measurable outcomes is more crucial than before.

HPB is systematic, systems-oriented, scientifically derived, open-ended and focused on improving performance. It covers five areas of management:

• Information
• Consequences
• Design
• Capability
• Alignment

Information

Define

If people are unclear, disagree, or have different expectations; there are conflicting objectives; or people do not have a shared understanding, then it's important to define these expectations and obtain agreement.

Inform

If information has changed, the people have changed, or the people are uninformed, and the consequence is poor performance; or people don't get the information they need, then inform them.

Consequences

Measure

If people don't know what criteria are being used by management to judge productivity, performance, value, and so on, and they could better control their own performance if they knew what the criteria were; measures of good performance are lacking; or measures are inappropriate. Without a measure, you can't manage.

Reward

When incentives either reinforce the wrong behaviours or ignore the desired behaviours; or there are few incentives for people to do better, more, or differently we don't get the result we want. Reward the behaviours we want.

Enforce

Perhaps the hardest part of managing is to enforce the consequences of poor performance or unacceptable behaviour and ensure they are not hidden.

Design

Organise

In the face of changing business it is inevitable that our structures become inefficient, result in redundancy, add excess costs, overly burdens cycle times, and hides accountability. Can we organise the business differently to achieve higher goals?

Standardise

When common practices and procedures aren't in place, sufficiently useful or adhered to, the organisation bears extra costs, runs inefficiently, and has a variance in the quality of work. Standardise because it makes life easier and businesses more effective and efficient.

Design

When equipment differs in the networked organisation, the current workspace, seating, lighting, or materials encumber, result in non-value-adding activity, or put employees' health and safety at risk, it's important to consider the (Re)design of the work area.

Capability

Reframe

In some organisations old attitudes about work are preventing innovation or growth. Strategies are needed to reframe, break old models, let go of the past, and come up with new possibilities; or people will be stuck, applying the same solution with no results to new problems, or there will be a lot of resistance to change.

Counsel

Particularly when computers are becoming so invasive and effective staff are forced to work in new ways, they can become preoccupied with or distracted by personal and career issues, and this will limit productivity or add unnecessary costs. Counsel them.

Develop

If the current performance is suffering or future performance will suffer because people lack skills and knowledge and there is a need to develop people for the future; then training can develop those people.

Alignment

Current messages, behaviours, systems, structures, or environments do not support management goals. Then align by identifying what is out of alignment and recommend ways to bring it into alignment.